The House On The Hill
by NirCele
Summary: Everyone noticed when the new family moved in the estate that hadn't been lived in for years. No one bothered them, however, for years...before a young boy became curious and climbed the hill. A Modern-Day AU. (A surprise anniversary present for 64K!)
1. Intro

**This story is dedicated to Sixty-four K, a good friend on here. She's a wonderful person, and you should totally go read/review her stories. It's her fanfic anniversary today! Congrats on lasting this long with all of this insanity, 64K! *piles presents at your feet***

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There was a house on the hill.

No, no, it wasn't that kind of house. It wasn't a terrifying house, something you might think comes from stories people would tell to scare their children. No, it was a quite cheery-looking house, accompanied with gardens along the sides, a sprawling two-acre lawn in front, and stables in the back.

It was an estate, to be simple.

Ten years ago, a family had moved in, their servants and housekeepers coming along with them. They were rich, to the reckoning of those who lived nearby, but they didn't act much like it.

The husband and father was tall, his hair dark and bearing noble. From the rumours that had spread of the family coming from England (and that they were related to royalty in some way), it wasn't that hard to believe that he was a Lord. His wife was fair, blonde-haired and elegant, and she smiled all the time, it seemed, but there was a hardness to her that seemed as though her life hadn't been quite as nice as it appeared to be now.

Their children were...different. There were two boys and a girl – well, they weren't _exactly_ children now. The boys were completely identical, dark-headed and energetic, and it was impossible (to the ones that lived nearby) to tell them apart. They seemed to be in their mid-teens, but it was hard to say for sure. The girl, definitely in her early teens if not pre-teens, was dark-haired as well, but had a small face like her mother. She smiled a lot as well, but she didn't when she thought no one was looking.

The stables in the back of the estate weren't just for show, it seemed. The family regularly rode the multiple horses, either going far back into the land that went with the house, vanishing into the small forested area, or riding along the road, all together.

The strangest thing to be sure, though, was the two main servants the family employed. There were others, of course, the groundskeeper and the stablemaster, but these two seemed to be the most...important.

The first seemed to be a housekeeper of sorts – he regularly came to town with other servants, directing them to fetch groceries and supplies, though he did other things as well. His hair was black as midnight, his gaze hard whenever someone met his dark eyes, but he did smile sometimes. It wasn't much, but he did.

The other was the stranger one – he always seemed to accompany the dark one, and was as friendly as the other wasn't. His hair was – the only way to describe it would be _golden_. It spilled down his back in glorious waves, and it was only rarely that anyone saw it pulled back in a braid. Usually that was only when he was working.

And that was the oddest thing about all this whole group. Every single one of them – even the servants – had silky hair, long and straight (except for the golden-haired one and the Lord's wife; theirs was wavey and curled at the ends). The children had shoulder-length hair, the boys' a little shorter than the girl's, but still. It was...different. It kept them apart from the others in the town – besides the fact that they were obviously well-off.

They were an oddity, that's what they were.

And so it sparked the interest of a very curious young boy.


	2. The Meeting

**This is a two-chapter story, it appears. I may write more at some point, but my plotbunny has escaped, so this will be it for now. Hope you enjoy!**

 ***pokes 64K* Happy anniversary again!**

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He was fortunate the first time he got caught.

He was hiding behind a bush, tufts of dark brown hair sticking every-which-way on his head as he peered through the branches. In the distance, what his eyes were caught on, was two laughing boys – older than him, though not by _too_ much, in his thinking – sitting easily astride two trotting horses as they played some sort of game he'd never heard of or seen before. They were tossing a ball back and forth, practically throwing it, and then leaning halfway off their mount to snatch it whenever it hit the ground. He still couldn't tell them apart, even after three days of sneaking up the hill to the mansion and hiding in the gardens beside the house to watch them play.

It was when he leaned forward as they spun their horses that he was caught.

A strong hand caught the collar of his shirt and lifted him easily from his hiding place, and he almost shrieked as he was brought up, up, _up_ , level with amused eyes that twinkled at him, though they were stern.

"And just what were you doing there, young master?" said this massive person (he _was_ massive, though, he had to be seven feet at least!).

He squeaked.

"Hm." The giant nodded after a moment and set him down, crouching to stay level with him. "Let's try this again. What's your name?"

 _Oh_. He knew who this was! This was the nice man that came every week with the darker-haired one, and he always smiled at the children playing outside the stores, and sometimes tossed them sweets!

"I – I'm Aragorn," he squeaked.

"Nice to meet you, Aragorn," said the giant after a moment. "I'm Glorfindel. Now might you tell me just what you were doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"No," said Aragorn stubbornly, though he was more than a little wary of this huge guy that looked liked he could crush him with his bare hands. "It's free time."

"Free time?" The giant stood up, raising an eyebrow. "I see. How long have you been up here?"

Aragorn peered up at him, trying to decide whether the giant could figure out or not if he was lying. "Um...only a few minutes."

"A few minutes, hm?" The giant looked at the boys still playing their game on the lawn, turning their horses about and throwing the ball, and he smiled slowly after a long moment. "I see. All right, then. Go on back to school now. Ah!" he added when Aragorn began to hurry away. "I'm not saying I don't want you back here, I'm just saying I don't want you here during school hours." He winked, but Aragorn was still more than a little intimidated.

"Just use the front door next time, eh?"

Aragorn nodded hastily and dashed away, using his hidden route along the line of trees down the paved driveway. He made it to the road and ran as fast as his legs could carry him until he reached the crossroads where it would turn to lead to the school, and he didn't look back once.

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`

He wasn't so lucky the next time.

It was rather stupid of him to actually try and sneak inside, but he _did_ make it to the parlor before he was noticed. He was attempting to get all the way to the stairs, massive and winding as he had seen through a huge side window. Every day through the huge arched windows (though it may have been 'accidental'), he had seen that strange, dark-haired girl sit on the steps as she sketched in that little notepad she always carried with her. She wasn't as interesting as her brothers, but...still. There was something intriguing about her, and Aragorn was drawn to her.

Would it be called spying? Perhaps. He was good at it, though.

He didn't make it halfway there, however, before he was caught.

There was simply a silent hand catching the back of his neck and tightening. He panicked, kicking at whoever had gotten a hold of him, but they were much stronger than him. He was lifted and carried into another room, the door swinging with a terrifying _snick_ behind them.

Then he was set down. He tried to run, but his arm was snagged and he was held firmly in place. He might have screamed, but it _was_ someone else's house, and it would be useless.

Fierce dark eyes met his, and he quailed inside.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" said this terrifying person. _This_ was the stern housekeeper that came every week with the more cheerful groundskeeper, directing a few quiet servants to fetch groceries and other items. He was not someone Aragorn would ever have liked to meet face-to-face.

Aragorn just trembled.

"You're the boy I've seen outside, aren't you?" said the terrifying person. "Always running around, hiding in the bushes. I would have gone out and caught you, but it's not my jurisdiction. I _assumed_ Glorfindel would take care of it." He shook Aragorn. " _Now_. Who are you?"

"Aragorn," said the boy in a timid voice.

"What are you doing here?"

Aragorn stared at him and swallowed, saying nothing.

"All right, then." The housekeeper stood up, still holding Aragorn's arm, and fished a phone from his shirt pocket. He flicked through a few things, then pressed a button and lifted the phone to his ear, dark eyes pinning Aragorn in place.

There was a tinny beep and Aragorn could faintly hear a deep voice on the other end of the phone, but he couldn't make out the words.

"Yes, it's _Erestor_ ," said the dark one after a moment. "Who else would call you from this phone, you dunce?" He huffed quietly, but when Aragorn whimpered and tried to tug away, he tightened his grip and glared down. "Be still," he hissed, then said into the phone, "Yes, I've caught a little spy trying to sneak into the house. Come fetch him, will you? I still have those new appliances to go over. No! Don't 'finish one last bit', get yourself moving and _be_ here! No...fine. Ninety seconds, then." He lowered the phone and pressed a button, then slid it back into his pocket.

Aragorn waited in terror as the tall housekeeper scowled down at him, and after a few seconds, he decided not to move. Nothing could be worse than this.

Exactly ninety-three seconds later (Aragorn counted, what else could he do?), the door slid open and a smiling giant walked into the room. Aragorn almost collapsed. _Absolutely terrified_ wouldn't even be appropriate to describe him right now.

"Hullo there!" said the giant upon seeing Aragorn. "We meet again, young master! How are you today?"

The hand on Aragorn's arm tightened and the dark person frowned. " _Glorfindel_. You're late. Don't encourage him. You've met him before?"

"Well...yes." The giant smiled. "I sent him back to school. Oh, good grief, Erestor, you're cutting off the circulation to his arm! Let him go!"

"He'll run."

"Will you run?" the giant asked Aragorn.

Aragorn shook his head quickly, eyes wide.

The dark person frowned and let him go, but watched him carefully as if he _knew_ somehow that Aragorn would dash away.

"So," said the giant. "I see you took my advice, going through the front door. I didn't exactly mean it like that, though."

Aragorn stared at the floor, and the terrifying housekeeper sputtered.

"You _what_?!"

"Well, he looked lonely," said the giant. "I was inviting him to come back and...play with the boys, maybe."

"No one plays with anyone," said the housekeeper, glaring at the giant and Aragorn in turn, "until they've met the parents."

"Do you want to meet the parents?" the giant asked Aragorn.

Aragorn shook his head again, thinking of that noble Lord and the silver-eyed Lady. They were too...regal. He wouldn't dare talk to them.

"You see?" The housekeeper huffed. "He's not supposed to be here. He _could_ be charged with trespassing."

Aragorn paled and wished he could shrink into himself. He hadn't thought anything would get this serious – he just wanted to see what all the fuss was about! Everyone in town talked about this place, but no one had ever been here.

"Just a moment," said the giant to Aragorn. "Stay there." He tugged the dark housekeeper out the door and they whispered fiercely for a long minute before they both came back inside.

The housekeeper was still glaring, but he seemed calmer. "Fine," he said. "Where do you live?"

Aragorn stared hesitantly, and the giant gave him a reassuring smile.

"D – down on Dúnedain Lane," he stuttered, still feeling the weight of those terrifying dark eyes. "With my mom. You're not going to sue us, are you?"

The housekeeper coughed and cleared his throat. "No. But I will speak to your mother about your...spying."

"Oh." Aragorn fell silent and stared at the floor. It was marble, he noticed, a rich cream color that was immaculately polished to a shining gleam. Just another small notice of how important or 'rich' these people were...

"Right, then," said the housekeeper after a sigh. "You can go, then. And if I see you around here again, I _will_ be calling the authorities, do you understand? You can't just go creeping about others' properties."

"What he said," the giant added when Aragorn looked at him. "Now come on, I'll escort you back to your house."

The giant did escort him, Aragorn occasionally pointing so he could make a turn, but Aragorn leaped out of the sleek Mercedes before he could pull up in front of his too-ordinary house.

"Thanks!" said Aragorn nervously, then hurried down the sidewalk, passing other houses in his subdivision before ducking into the back yard of one of his friends, taking a shortcut out of sight of the road. The car pulled away, silent and swift, and headed back the way it had come.

Aragorn watched silently from behind a paneled fence, wondering what it was all truly about.


End file.
